The Darwin Centennial Celebration, commemorating the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, was held at the University of Chicago from November 24 through November 28, 1959. Sol Tax, Professor of Anthropology, served as the chairman of the Centennial Committee. The interdisciplinary Centennial Committee also included Alfred E. Emerson (Department of Zoology), Chauncy D. Harris (Department of Geography), Everett E. Olson (Department of Geology), H. Burr Steinbach (Department of Zoology), and Ilza Veith (Medicine). The Darwin Centennial Celebration had several sponsors besides the University of Chicago, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
The Celebration began appropriately enough on November 24, the date of the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. That afternoon featured a panel discussion on "The Origin of Life," the first of five topical panels planned for the Celebration. The scholars participating in these panel discussions produced papers several months in advance of the conference that were read and criticized by the other participating scholars. These papers formed the basis for the five panel discussions, but the papers themselves were not read. The discussions were wholly spontaneous. The first day concluded with a lecture by Sir Charles Darwin, grandson of Charles Darwin, entitled "Darwin the Traveler," in which he described the famous voyage of the Beagle.
Another of the Centennial's central participants was Sir Julian Huxley, grandson of 19th century evolutionist Thomas Huxley. Huxley played a unique role in the Celebration. In an attempt to create unity among disparate topics, the Centennial Committee asked Huxley to read and provide editorial comments on each of the participants' papers. Huxley also drew sustained attention from the media because of his comments that the growth in human population would have disastrous consequences. On the second day of the celebration, November 25, Huxley made his first scheduled appearance and co-chaired Panel 2, "The Evolution of Life," with University of Chicago zoology professor Alfred E. Emerson. This was followed by a showing of the film The Ladder of Life, and finally, L.S.B. Leakey's illustrated lecture, "The Origin of the Genus Homo."
Thursday, November 26 was Thanksgiving Day, and the holiday was a busy one for Celebration attendees. Panel 3, "Man as an Organism," which featured prominent figures such as Leakey and micropaleontologist Cesare Emiliani, took place in the morning hours. The Chicago Tribune reported on this panel's consideration of whether humans ever had tails, a question brought up by University of Michigan professor Marston Bates. A special Convocation of the University was held that afternoon in the University's Rockefeller Chapel. In his controversial Convocation address, "The Evolutionary Vision," Sir Julian Huxley proposed that religion, being subject to the laws of evolution, was fast becoming obsolete and would eventually evolve itself out of existence. That evening's more lighthearted festivities included a Thanksgiving Dinner and the debut performance of Time will Tell, a musical about Darwin's life and work that was written by Robert Pollak and Robert Ashenhurst.
Panel 4, "The Evolution of the Mind," took place on the morning of November 27, and it included scientists from several disciplines, including Dutch ornithologist N. (Nikolaas) Tinbergen and British neurologist Macdonald Critchley. That afternoon, the Institute for High School Biology Teachers examined the problems of teaching evolutionary theory in public schools.
The final day of the Celebration, November 28, featured Panel 5, "Social and Cultural Evolution," The day also included two institutes, the second part of the Institute for High School Biology Teachers and the Institute on Science and Theology. With the participation of political philosopher Leo Strauss among others, the latter examined the relation of science, and more specifically evolution, to theology.
Sol Tax concluded the Darwin Centennial Celebration, not with a synthesis of the science discussed, but with key questions about how Darwin's legacy will continue to affect human culture and the study of it. Among his arguments was what he saw as the detrimental impact of denying evolution. "No matter what gets done about our religious beliefs.... [w]e cannot deal with the difficult problems of the world unless our education takes account of the demonstrated empirical fact."
Tax, however, ended the week with a hopeful and unifying note. "Is it possible," Tax asked the audience, "that this week becomes indeed a turning point in human history to which we are witnesses?"
David Pavelich
Reference and Instruction Librarian
Special Collections Research Center
This Web exhibit was planned in conjunction with the Darwin/Chicago 2009 conference held at the University of Chicago, October 29-31, 2009 and complements the exhibit Chicago Celebrates Darwin held at the John Crerar Library, October 19, 2009-March 26, 2010.
The present Web exhibit and the John Crerar Library exhibits draw heavily on the Darwin Centennial Celebration Records, which are held in the Special Collections Research Center. The collection contains correspondence, invitations, biographical material on celebration participants, publicity, press releases, clippings, photographs, and sound recordings of panel discussions and Centennial proceedings. This Web exhibit was curated by David Pavelich, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Special Collections and was produced by Kerri Sancomb, Special Collections Exhibit Specialist.
Contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.
This Web site was created in the summer of 2009 with a templating system developed by Marc Gasser, Digital Library Development Center (DLDC), University of Chicago Library, with input from Alice Schreyer, Director, Special Collections Research Center (SCRC); Daniel Meyer, Associate Director, SCRC; Elisabeth Long, Co-director, DLDC; and Kerri Sancomb, Exhibit Specialist, SCRC. Photography for exhibit banner and Web site by Mike Kenny, Photographer, Preservation Department; Scanning by Yennie Lee, Exhibit Assistant; Web site design by Marc Gasser and Kerri Sancomb.
In its capacity as owner of the physical property represented in this Web exhibit, the University of Chicago Library encourages the use of these materials for educational and scholarly purposes.
Some documents, texts, and images included in "The Darwin Centennial Celebration" are subject to U. S. copyright law. It is the user's sole responsibility to secure any necessary copyright permission to publish documents, texts, and images from any holders of rights in these materials.
Use of these materials for publication in any medium also requires the permission of the University of Chicago Library. Use of materials for commercial publication projects may be subject to a use fee. Please consult the policies of the Special Collections Research Center: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/research/permissions.html
For further information on reproduction of materials from the Special Collections Research Center, contact: the Special Collections Research Center.
The following film excerpts are taken from The Darwin Centennial, produced by Encyclopedia Britannica for the University of Chicago, which documents highlights from the Centennial Celebration. The full film is available for viewing in the Special Collections Research Center.
Introductory montage. view video clip
Panel 2, “The Evolution of Life.” view video clip
Panelists include Daniel I. Axelrod, Theodosius Dobzhansky, E.B. Ford, Ernst Mayr, Alfred E. Emerson, Julian Huxley, A.J. Nicholson, Everett C. Olson, C. Ladd Prosser, G. Ledyard Stebbins, Sewall Wright.
Panel 3, “Man as an Organism.” view video clip
Panelists include Marston Bates, Cesare Emiliani, A. Irving Hallowell, F. Clark Howell, George Gaylord Simpson, L.S.B. Leakey, Bernhard Rensch, C.H. Waddington.
Darwin Centennial Celebration Convocation. view video clip
Includes footage of participants receiving honorary degrees in Rockefeller Chapel.
The following audio files are selections from reel to reel audio tapes that were recorded during the Darwin Centennial Celebration and are now in the Darwin Centennial Celebration Records. The complete recordings are available to researchers for use in the Special Collections Research Center.
Lawrence Kimpton, Chancellor of the University of Chicago, Opening Remarks
Sir Charles Darwin, "Darwin the Traveler"
L.B.S. Leaky, "The Origin of the Genus Homo"
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Image of Darwin. George Platzman Portrait Collection Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was not the first to propose an evolutionary theory of life, but the mechanism of natural selection that he presented in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection proved to be seminal. The proliferation of printed portraits of Darwin over time have made him one of the most recognizable scientists in history, bested perhaps only by Albert Einstein. |
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Charles Darwin (1809-1882). On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: J. Murray, 1859. Special Collections, Rare Books Darwin began drafting On the Origin of Species in the spring of 1856, though he had been collecting data and crafting his theory since his famous voyage on the Beagle twenty years earlier. The first edition of the book was published on November 24, 1859. Its initial reception varied from enthusiastic acceptance on the part of scientists such as geologist Charles Lyell, to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ dismay at the theory’s close mirroring of conservative political theory. |
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Charles Darwin to Miss Buckley, August 16, 18-. Joseph Halle Schaffner Collection in the History of Science Like many of his contemporaries, Darwin maintained a prodigious correspondence. Scientific communication was international, and Darwin wrote to many scientists within England and abroad. This letter demonstrates that On the Origin of Species had a wide readership, and it shows Darwin’s willingness to respond to the queries of his readers. Speaking of aphids, Darwin responds to Miss Buckley, “I have described in Origin the slave making process, as seen by myself. – I have, however, remarked (speaking from memory) that apparently F. sanguinea does not attend so much to aphides in England as on the continent.” |
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Programme of Darwin Anniversary Addresses. The Biological Club, University of Chicago, 1909. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records The University of Chicago has a long history of interest in Darwin and evolutionary studies. In 1909, the University hosted a series of lectures, “freely open to the public,” to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Darwin’s birth. The speakers were members of the University faculty and included philosopher George Herbert Mead, botanist Henry Chandler Cowles, and Dean of the Divinity School Shailer Matthews. |
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The Darwin Centennial Celebration Committee. Archival Photographic Files From left to right: Sol Tax (Department of Anthropology) and Chairman of the Centennial Committee; Everett E. Olson (Department of Geology); Chauncy D. Harris (Department of Geography); Alfred E. Emerson (Department of Zoology); Seated: Ilza Veith (Department of Medicine), H. Burr Steinbach (Department of Zoology) |
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Draft of Lawrence Kimpton’s letter to Sir Charles Darwin, [1956]. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records Sol Tax began planning the Darwin Centennial Celebration more than three years before the event. Early in planning, Tax identified Sir Charles Darwin and Julian Huxley as crucial figures for the success of the celebration. Tax drafted an invitation for University of Chicago Chancellor Lawrence Kimpton to send to Darwin and Huxley in 1956. Both speakers, of course, accepted. |
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[Sol Tax?]. Handwritten note, [1959]. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records The Darwin Centennial Celebration attracted such wide public attention that members of the public had to be turned away due to space constraints. Though Mandel Hall could hold 1,000 audience members, each panel attracted more than 1,700 interested conference goers. |
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Sol Tax to Percival Bailey, March 4, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records This letter to Percival Bailey, of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, was never sent, but it demonstrates that some Darwin Centennial Celebration participants were not receptive to Julian Huxley’s editorial role. A letter from Tax dated April 7 listed four main comments from “several participants,” including the point that Bailey’s “use of the terms ‘idiot,’ ‘moron,’ etc. in respect to man at certain stages of his evolution confuses two distinct evolutionary processes, genetical and physical versus culturally determined.” Bailey immediately withdrew his paper and did not participate in the Darwin Centennial Celebration. |
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N. Tinbergen to Sol Tax, April 3, 1959. Oxford, England. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records Dutch ethologist Nikolaas (Nico) Tinbergen was invited to the Darwin Centennial Celebration as an expert on animal behavior. In this letter, Tinbergen explains to Tax what he believes his role will be in the celebration. Specifically, Tinbergen means to speak about the “indirect effects of natural selection, and the compromises resulting from either [straight forward] clashes between more than one type of selection pressure, or joint effects of more than one pressure on the same feature.” |
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Sir Charles Darwin to Sol Tax, August 19, 1959. Cambridge, England. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records Like the other celebration participants, Sir Charles Darwin submitted his paper, “Can Man Control his Numbers?,” to Julian Huxley for feedback. In addition to his reaction to Huxley’s “trivial” comments, Darwin criticizes Huxley’s essay “The Emergence of Darwinism” for its treatment of “psycho-social” or “cultural evolution,” or human tradition. Huxley argued that human evolution was not pre-eminently biological, but that it was the “fuller realization of more possibilities by the human species collectively and more of its component members individually.”
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Julian Huxley. “Suggested points for discussion by panel 5.” October 21, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records In addition to providing commentary on the papers submitted by each Celebration participant, Julian Huxley developed possible questions and talking points for each of the five topical panels in advance of the event. Among talking points that Huxley suggested for Panel 5, “Social and Cultural Evolution,” is his own theory of “psychosocial selection in competing ideas, skills, and beliefs.” |
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Sewall Wright. Hand-drawn figures for “Physiological Genetics, Ecology of Populations, and Natural Selection.” Darwin Centennial Celebration Records Sewall Wright, professor of genetics from the University of Wisconsin, submitted a paper to the Centennial Committee which considered “the mathematical framework of the theory of evolution at a succession of levels of complexity.” In an era before the personal computer, many of Sewall’s diagrams – like the four pictured here – were hand-drawn. |
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Robert Pollak to Robert Ashenhurst, October 26, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records Robert Pollak and Robert Ashenhurst were surprised to learn that Julian Huxley wanted to appear onstage during the performance of Time Will Tell, their musical about Charles Darwin. Pollak was even more surprised that Huxley “wasn’t particularly anxious to have Sir Charles Darwin appear on stage at all.” In the end, it isn’t clear if Huxley and Darwin actually appeared onstage. |
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Script and songbook for the musical production Time Will Tell. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records |
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Program for the musical production Time Will Tell. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records
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Montage of photographs from the performance of Time Will Tell, November 26-28, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records and the Archival Photographic Files |
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Ticket to Darwin Centennial Celebration events. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records |
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Program for the Darwin Centennial Celebration. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records |
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A sold-out crowd for the Darwin Centennial Celebration, November 2-?, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records |
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Sir Charles Darwin delivering his opening night lecture, “Darwin the Traveler,” November 24, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records |
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Panel 1, “The Origin of Life,” November 24, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records From left to right: Sir Charles Darwin, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Earl A. Evans, Jr., Hans Gaffron, Harlow Shapley, G.F. Gause, Ralph W. Gerard, H.J. Muller, C. Ladd Prosser. |
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Panel 2, “The Evolution of Life,” November 25, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records From left to right: Daniel I. Axelrod, Theodosius Dobzhansky, E.B. Ford, Ernst Mayr, Alfred E. Emerson, Julian Huxley, A.J. Nicholson, Everett C. Olson, C. Ladd Prosser, G. Ledyard Stebbins, Sewall Wright. |
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L.S.B. Leakey talking with an audience member, November 2-?, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records |
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Panel 3, “Man as an Organism,” November 26, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records From left to right: Marston Bates, Cesare Emiliani, A. Irving Hallowell, F. Clark Howell, George Gaylord Simpson, L.S.B. Leakey, Bernhard Rensch, C.H. Waddington. |
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Julian Huxley giving his convocation address, “The Evolutionary Vision,” November 26, 1959. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records |
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Anonymous to L.S.B. Leakey, Julian Huxley, et al. November 26, 1959. Chicago, IL. Darwin Centennial Celebration Records Discussions of evolution are often controversial. Widespread media attention resulted in an influx of protest letters addressed to Darwin Centennial Celebration participants. The letters questioned the factuality of evolution broadly, and the validity of Darwin’s theory of natural selection more specifically. Many of the letters invoked religious teachings to counter the scientist’s findings. |
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Sol Tax, Editor. Evolution after Darwin: the University of Chicago Centennial. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c1960. University of Chicago Press Imprint Collection The University of Chicago Press began plans as early as January, 1957 to publish the proceedings of the Darwin Centennial Celebration. The contents of the three volumes include the 45 papers that were submitted to the Centennial Committee, transcripts of the panel discussions, and a memoir of the event by Sol Tax. |
